valleyfair

went to valleyfair with my family, dan's mom and stepdad, and dan's sis, bro-in-law and niece. had a lovely time. jack was very brave about the rides. he went on the mini carousel all by himself! he also went on the regular carousel and ferris wheel w/me, the antique cars with daddy and i, and he went alone on the kid's train and semi-trucks.

i rode on the ferris wheel, carousel, antique cars, excaliber, renegade, and thunder canyon. we spent a lot of time at the water park. a lot.:) jack took almost a 2 hour nap laying on me. i was pleasantly surprised that he got such a large and painless nap. i am sure the day would have been a disaster without it.

andy, jack and claire had their photo taken at an old timey photo place. i will have to scan the photo and post. it is pretty fun. speaking of fun... valleyfair still had the ben & jerry's shop and they still had "coffee coffee buzz buzz buzz". yum! but i almost got "chocolate therapy". :) glad we don't live anywhere near a b&j's. too much temptation. and who needs that?

cluck cluck

one more photo from visiting the chickens with my nieces. enolea is a beauty.

a little chicken watching

watched my nieces (eme, nole, elles) the other day. took them, and jack, down the hill to see gramps's chickens. or "bwaks" as jack calls them. chickens are so entertaining.

gardening '09

this year i have 2 gardens. i share half of my parent's garden, and a bit of my grandparent's garden. the other night i went down the hill to do a little work in my garden. as i pruned the tomato plants and picked the broccoli and leaf lettuce, jack did a bit of hoeing. it felt really good.

trader joe's

my thoughtful sis-in-law asked me if there was anything i wanted when she went to trader joe's. was there?!!!!!!!!!! 4 cans of chai and a box of french chocolate truffles for approx. $15. sweet. i recommend the dark chocolate caramels, too. so much more i haven't experienced! can't wait to get back there again.

como zoo/como town

sunday we went to the como zoo. the butterfly exhibit was actually really really great because there were butterflies everywhere -- as it should be!:) one landed on my forehead and i took two photos of myself with a little natural bling. we saw all sorts of really cool animals in very nice habitat and the weather was great. went to the little amusement park attached to the zoo. jack drove these little corvette-like cars 3 times, and then he drove a little horsecart. andy rode on the swings with claire. it was such a nice vacation.

marshall family reunion

went to the marshall fam reunion saturday. the party was very nice: in-ground pool, yummy food, dice game, family. dan, andy, jack and i spent about 3 hours in the pool. the food was plentiful, and featured the family's required porketta. my pound cake was a hit.:) the dice game went well. i brought 3 gifts and ended up with 5. double:).